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Because the typical antipsychotics work by blocking dopamine receptors, they can cause Parkinsonian (similar to those seen in Parkinson's disease) symptoms. One of these is a kind of shuffling gait while walking. It involves slow, stiff movements.

The term has been generalized to include the concept of being doped into oblivion, but the original symptom that the term refers to is the above.

Edited 15 Jul 2010 by tryp

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It doesn't happen to everyone, or even the majority of the people on the drug, however. It's mostly a term thrown around by anti-medication groups who don't even understand what MI is like and how helpful medication can be.

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I've had the Thorazine shuffle. It was most assuredly a real condition. Lots of Thorazine does strange things to your body. It makes your joints so that they don't want to move. When you walk, you barely lift your feet up off the ground. Way back then, in the 70's and early 80's, there weren't a lot of drugs to pick from. You could always tell who was on Thorazine because of the way they walked and the way they moved their arms. They would move their arms without bending their elbows. With Haldol they'd give you Cogentin to counteract the side effects but with Thorazine you learned to live with them.

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Typical antipsychotics and very high doses of atypicals (mainly risperidone and olanzapine) can cause motor difficulties. I never thought I would experience something like that until when I had to take 40mg of Zyprexa one afternoon. Everything that people said about Haldol and Thorazine became true for me on Zyprexa. Of course, I was taking (although doctor ordered) 4 times the average dose, but it was still scary. It was like wanting to scream and throw a fit, but not being able to do anything except twitch and grimace. Horrible.

So, yes, it is real, however, I have heard it called the "Haldol Shuffle" which is more likely since Haldol is an almost pure D2 antagonist. Thorazine has M1 and H1 antagonist properties which actually lower expression of EPS. However, just like high doses of Zyprexa, it can happen.